This invention relates to a containment article having a pair of hingedly connected, substantially identical shells and related improvements.
Containment articles, and more particularly, luggage articles made of a pair of injection molded plastic shells, are known. However, the shells for the luggage articles are separate non-identical pieces which require separate molds for their manufacture. There are several disadvantages with this method, of manufacturing. One is that both machines must have open capacity or capacity reserved for production cycles within a close time frame of each other. This results in logistical inefficiency. Second, the machines should be located preferably in the same plant and sometimes that is not the case. Third, shells made by different machines and/or different molds have different molding times meaning that one molding machine will always be waiting for another molding machine to finish in order to make the pair of shells necessary for a completed luggage article. Fourth, different shells will distort and shrink at different rates thus requiring greater accuracy in molding and slower cycle times yielding higher manufacturing prices. Finally, different shells cannot nest, thus leading to inefficiencies in storage and shipping.
What is needed, therefore, is a containment article, such as a luggage article, having a pair of plastic shells that can be easily and efficiently manufactured and assembled. What is also needed is an improved telescoping handle assembly as well as an improved safety latch for containment articles, such as luggage articles.
The invention has met or exceeded the above-mentioned needs as well as others. A containment article, such as a luggage article, is provided which comprises a pair of substantially identical plastic shells which are hingedly connected to each other.
The invention also includes a unique and novel safety latch for a containment article and also an improved telescoping handle assembly for an article, such as wheeled luggage.